Web audio! Plus Grothe for Heisman

We at the Times are becoming multimedia fiends online, so I'm proud to link up to another edition of web audio with myself and the Times' Tom Jones (left) talking about the big game at Rutgers on Thursday. (Me, I want an online poll of which silly 2c Tom Jones mug shot people like most. I think I vote for "hands raised in mock disbelief.")

What Tom didn't drop in there in the audio is that he was launching a Heisman campaign for USF quarterback Matt Grothe -- not that Grothe hasn't been subtlely campaigning every week -- by making a case for Grothe on our page 2c today. (By the way, I just think it's fun to say "Grohawk." As opposed to my inverted Nohawk, where there's really nothing on top and everything on the sides.) I'll say this of Grothe and the Heisman: he's a sophomore, and as a rule, sophomores don't win Heismans. If USF wins out, anything is possible, and if Grothe just leads USF to a Big East title (that "just" seems odd there, doesn't it?), he'll be on everybody's preseason short list next year. But this December? If all the current front-runners continue to lose on the field, Grothe isn't lacking for charisma and popularity.

More in-house linkage: metro columnist Sue Carlton writes about how much fun it is to be a USF graduate right now. I'll spin this as College Fans Are More ... Passionate, but Saturday's USF-UCF game drew 26 arrests (24 for underage drinking) and 42 ejections; Sunday's comparably tame Bucs game drew five arrests and five ejections. Just a hunch, but methinks that, folks, is why they don't let you on the pirate ship.

Completely unrelated to USF, just wanted to plug TV writer Eric Deggans' column on a Dunedin woman who is leading a campaign to save Jorja Fox's Sara Sidle character on CSI. As with USF, there are great stories out there about the lengths fans will go to for something they love. BTW, Thursday at 9 p.m. is the most difficult DVR call in the Auman household, what with my wife's McDreamy-based needs for "Grey's Anatomy," my lobbying for "The Office" and CSI a compelling if distant third. We can only record two things while watching a third, and don't think it hasn't complicated things to have USF-Rutgers on ESPN this week. (Photo from Getty Images)

I'll link to this week's USF notebook, pointing out why Bulls fans should be rooting for Indiana (full disclosure: my editor is an alum) and Iowa (full disclosure: I've never been there) in the craziness that is strength-of-schedule algorithms and computer ratings. USF fans have to pull for all the teams they've beaten -- that now means UCF, too, folks -- and should know that Elon is now a nationally ranked I-AA team, taking on No. 7 Wofford this weekend. That win, odd as it seems, would help the Bulls in a tiny butterfly-effect kind of way.

I'll take a sec here to thank you guys as readers, too, for coming back here as often as you do. Over the weekend, this blog drew four times as much traffic as our Bucs blog. I say this not to brag, so much as to show how big a fan base USF has developed in the past month. I'd be happy to see this blog draw equal traffic to the Bucs on a home-game weekend for both teams. You keep reading, I'll keep writing.

About the blog

South Florida Bulls fans, you've come to the right place: the USF Sports Bulletin blog. Tampa Bay Times sportswriter Joey Knight, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin, and we invite your participation in the comments area. Follow the Times' coverage of USF athletics on Twitter.